| |
Important distinctions - the many faces
of Islam
By Marwaan Macan-Markar
BANGKOK -
Asia's moderate Muslims have unlikely allies who are giving legitimacy to
a view that they asserted after September 11 - that Islam
is not a monolithic faith, that there are many Islams.
Their unwitting supporters are a growing chorus
of high-profile, neo-conservatives in the United States
who are calling on Washington to deem Saudi Arabia an
American enemy because of the form of Islam it practices
and exports - Wahhabism.
This view has gained
currency "within the [President George W] Bush
administration - especially on the staff of Vice
President [Dick] Cheney and in the Pentagon's civilian
leadership - and among neo-conservative writers and
thinkers closely allied with administration
policymakers," the Washington Post newspaper wrote last
week.
This group views Wahhabism as troubling because
it sees a strong anti-US sentiment being pushed by
its exponents. Adherents of this argument cite well known
examples: Osama bin Laden and a majority of the 19
hijackers who participated in the suicide strikes in New
York and Washington. Bin Laden, the man wanted by the
United States for planning the September 11 attacks, and
the majority of the hijackers came from Saudi Arabia and
were adherents of Wahhabism.
In shedding light
on the dangers of Wahhabism for the United
States, the neo-conservatives are implying that a distinction can be made
between this form of Islam that has taken root in
Saudi Arabia, and the other Islams across the world.
But for moderate Muslims in Asia, the problem with Wahhabism has little
to do with the US twist and goes back
years.
Following September 11, when Islam was
pilloried as a monolithic faith that propagated terror,
moderate Muslims attempted to offer a counterpoint. They
asserted that the faith was far from monolithic, ranging
from the more austere and extremist form practiced in
the Middle East, particularly Saudi Arabia, and the
other strands of Islam evident in Muslim communities in
Southeast Asia, South Asia and Central Asia.
"Had the Muslim community been given the chance
to choose its leaders, the likelihood is that we would
not have chosen a bunch of Wahhabi or Deobandi extremists
to speak for the rest of the Muslim community," Farish
Noor, a political commentator in predominantly Muslim
Malaysia, wrote in an article titled "Who elected you,
Mr Osama?" as early as last year. The Muslim community,
he added, "is much bigger and certainly more diverse".
Wahhabism emerged in the 18th century and since
then became a pillar of legitimacy for Saudi Arabia's
monarchy. Its adherents comprise just 10 percent of the
world's more than 1 billion Muslims, but its
conservatism includes restrictions on women's rights and
participation in public life and it has succeeded in
convincing the Saudi monarchy to ban all other religious
practices in the country.
The Deobandi movement
matches Wahhabism in its conservative views on Islam. The
school that propagates this interpretation of Islam is
based in Deoband, an Indian town, and represents the
extreme fringe of the faith in Asia. Afghanistan's
defeated Taliban regime was a product of the Deobandi
ideology.
Another moderate Muslim voice, Surin
Pitsuwan, Thailand's former foreign minister, also
reiterated the broad spectrum in Islam and the
differences between the faith as practiced in the Middle
East and in Southeast Asia.
"This distinction
has become a point of controversy ever since Islam
arrived in our region over 10 centuries ago," Surin
wrote in a newspaper commentary in late September. "Some
consider the Southeast Asian brand of Islam less pure,
and our Muslims less puritanical and less true to their
faith than those in the Middle East."
Asia's
moderate Muslims are amply qualified to shed light on
the attempt by the Wahhabi movement, backed by Saudi
funding, to impose its narrow, intolerant and oppressive
views on other Muslims across the continent. This is
because Asia is home to many strands of Islam, including
those who belong to the two broad categories of Sunni
and Shi'ite, those who accept at least two of the four
legal traditions of the Sunnis and to those who accept
Sufism as a part of their faith.
The Sunnis are
the majority among the world's Muslims, while the
Shi'ite Muslims make up the minority. The Wahhabis are
members of the Sunni majority. This divergence in Islam
- one of the first since the death of Prophet Mohammad
in 632 - resulted in the Sunnis accepting the
fundamentals of the faith and the customs of the
prophet. The Shi'ites accepted the fundamentals of the
faith and placed additional loyalty to Ali, Mohammad's
son-in-law.
Shi'ites make up the majority in
Iran, while pockets of them live in South Asia, from
India and Pakistan to Afghanistan, and Central Asia. The
rest of the region is largely Sunni.
Sufism,
on the other hand, is more widespread, with adherents
living in Southeast Asia, South Asia and Central Asia.
With regard to the Sunni legal traditions that
prevail, Hanafi, the oldest school and often described
as the most liberal, is embraced by Chinese Muslims,
those in Central Asia, and parts of South Asia. The
Shafi legal tradition is evident in Southeast Asia and
in South Asia.
In addition, the likelihood of
Muslims in Asia having a broader outlook in religion is
greater because a number of them live in close proximity
to adherents of other beliefs, like Buddhism, Hinduism,
Christianity, Jainism and Taoism.
For
the Wahhabis, however, much of what passes for Islam in
Asia could be considered a deviation from the
fundamentals teachings of the Koran, which is anathema to them.
The Wahhabis even have an Arabic word that they use to
express disgust for any practice they deem "not Islamic"
- bida.
The followers of Wahhabism have
been trying to make inroads into the world of Asian
Islam since the 1970s. This effort, backed by Saudi
money, has had two objectives: to ensure that the Wahhabi
version of Islam becomes the dominant form and to
counter the promotion of Shi'ite Islam by Iran after the
Islamic revolution there in 1979.
Hence, Wahhabi
enthusiasts today have no qualms combating other Muslims
in Asia, attacking their Sufi traditions, condemning
those who recite prayers with songs, destroying mosques
if they do not conform to the austere regimen of
Wahhabism and ridiculing Muslims who celebrate the
Prophet Mohammad's birthday.
For the Wahhabis, the
ideal Islamic state was the one in Afghanistan ruled by
the Taliban, where women were subjugated, laughter and
song forbidden, and only one form of Islam permitted.
Moderate Muslims like Noor of Malaysia are well
aware of the other torments in the Islamic world. These
purists and "defenders of Islam" can "hardly speak for
the thousands of other Muslims who have been killed by
them in the quest for a model Islamic state," he wrote.
So when the neo-conservatives in the United
States draw a distinction between Wahhabism and the other
strands of Islam, Asia's moderate Muslims can say: We
told you so.
(Inter
Press Service)
|
| |
|
|
 |
|
